DA 2010 Episode 12: Kickoff
by AngelExposed
Summary: The students of Xaviers are shipped off to Muir Island, and Monet is suffering with some agonising headaches. Meanwhile, Kitty makes another attempt to hack into the GMCF...but is this risking more than she realises? (Finished, R & R)
1. Chapter 1: Field Trip

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12

Chapter 1:  Field Trip

          "Miss Pryde, please remind me again WHY we have to go on this field trip…" Monet St Croix uttered disdainfully as she put her suitcase down on the floor in the foyer.  Her long hair fell over her shoulders as she bent downwards to do so, and she swept it back as she came back up with an elegant grace that Kitty so greatly envied. 

          Kitty Pryde was checking off a list of the students who were to go to the Mutant Research Centre on Muir Island in Scotland, as an educational field trip.  The foyer was full of noise and life, and suitcases and rucksacks littered the floor.   The students were talking amongst themselves, some excited at the prospects of going to a country they'd never been to before, some were just glad to be getting out of the mansion and out of class for the next week. 

Kitty looked at the girl in front of her, a vision with coffee skin and glittering brown eyes, full pouting lips and perfect cheekbones.  Kitty resented that a sixteen year old could be so beautiful, and wished she could look half as good – and thought sadly that if she could maybe Piotr Rasputin might have given her even a slight acknowledgement that he noticed her presence.

 "Because you need to further your education in mutant genetics," Kitty responded dully, bringing herself out of her thoughts.  Kitty scribbled Monet's name off on a sheet of paper on her clipboard, "is this all you're taking?" she gestured to the suitcase beside Monet.

          "Yes," Monet sighed dejectedly, she pressed her hand to her forehead for a minute frowning as if in pain.

"You alright?"

"Just a headache, why won't these children EVER be quiet?" Monet demanded angrily with an expression of disapproval.

"Because they're kids," Kitty replied simply, "Just because you never let yourself have a childhood doesn't mean they can't have theirs."

Monet groaned and folded her arms in a stubborn but subtle manner, and stood primly with her head high, "which instructors will be accompanying us on this field trip?" she queried.

          Kitty smiled wryly, and noted Monet's luggage on the paper as well, "Jean and Scott will be flying you guys over there, but, they'll be leaving shortly after touchdown," she explained, "your instructors in Scotland will be Mr Sean Cassidy and Doctor Moira MacTaggart," she added, referring to two of the Professor's associates on the Island, one a mutant and the other a human."

          Monet turned her nose up at the idea, she sat on her suitcase, "I can't believe I'm being subjected to this," she despaired, "as if I need to learn mutant genetics from a Human."

          Kitty raised an eyebrow, instantly noticing Monet's sharp observation, "Uhm…I never mentioned that Dr MacTaggart is human," she stated quite matter-of-factly.

          "You didn't need to," Monet stated, "I found her name on one of the databases in the war room," she crossed one leg over the other prudishly, and placed her hands upon her knee.

          "You know you're supposed to keep out of there," Kitty frowned.

          "It doesn't hurt to be informed, Miss Pryde," Monet replied rather importantly, "one day, you never know…my knowledge might just save your lives."

The woman known as Rogue had been lying curled up on her bed staring at a photo of Remy LeBeau for the longest time without having taken her eyes away.  She studied every part of his face, the familiar smirk, the intense burning eyes, that silken hair, that deep south tan.  She was with him in the picture, and his arm was around her, holding her so close that she'd been able to smell the faint smell of wine from his breath.  Even seven years later, she could still remember his scent exactly, the strength of his arm around her waist, and the feel of his bare hand against the burgundy fabric of her dress. 

That night she'd asked him if he'd wanted to marry her, and he'd said yes, and everything had been so wonderful until he'd found out something she'd felt he never should have.  If he hadn't, she wondered if they would be where they were today, separated, and her with no idea if he really was alive.

Since the two days before when she and Kitty had been hacking into the Global Criminal Database, a question had been burning in her mind.  Had the real Remy LeBeau ever really existed at all, or was he just another clone, given a name and sent out to spy on the X-Men.

Rogue wondered if she'd ever loved Remy at all or if it had been a clone she'd been fooled into falling in love with, and despite the fact the idea seemed ridiculous, she couldn't help but believe that somehow a part of it might be true.  In her heart however, something told her that there was a real Remy, because there were instances that just could never have taken place with a clone.

"Where are you, Remy?" She asked in a sad voice, with her free hand she touched the face of the photograph with her bare fingers, she closed her eyes and wished for a moment that she could trace the contours of Remy's perfect features through the photo.  But all she felt was a flat and cold glossy surface beneath her fingertips.

Weeks had gone by, days with no real leads on Remy's whereabouts.  Life had gone on – with the responsibilities of teaching the students and maintaining the Danger Room sessions, everyone had been busy.  Rogue had a bigger responsibility now.  Since finding out about the Mutant Research Facility and the registration of mutants, Danger Room sessions were longer, harder, and Rogue had to put in twice as many hours as she could, not only working with the students, but also training with the X-Men.

The X-Men had been forfeiting valuable sleep time to try and find out more information regarding the situation, but no one had been able to find any leads, and it was becoming more and more difficult to stay positive.  No one seemed half as concerned about Remy as they were with the Mutant Research Facility and registration of mutants.  The students were under strict chaperone when leaving the estate, the Professor terrified that them drawing the slightest bit of attention to themselves may cause to an unjust arrest and registration.  Rogue understood this concern, but felt slightly angry that their main concern was not just Remy LeBeau any longer.

Rogue tossed the photograph into a nearby pile of similar photos on her bedside cabinet and she pressed her hands to her eyes trying to force out the beginnings of another headache, "where the hell are you, Remy…?"

Kitty had been avoiding Kurt Wagner for the last two weeks.  Luckily she'd been busy enough to come up with excuses not to see him or be in the same room as him.  She'd skipped lunches and dinners as much as she could, eating alone and out of the fridge when she got the chance. 

Working with the students during classes and practicing in the Danger Room with Hank, Logan, Ororo and Piotr had occupied a lot of her time.  Training sessions had been tripled since the discovery of the GMCF – the X-Men had decided it might be wise to remain prepared for anything, there was no telling what might happen in the future weeks to come. 

Kitty was glad of all the extra responsibilities and work to do in the Mansion as of late.  It took her mind off of her personal life, and gave her the satisfaction of keeping busy.  She'd feel guilt constantly over not being able to locate Remy through all of her tracing efforts.  She'd force this to the back of her mind as often as she could, and vent her frustrations at it out in the Danger room, which she felt was being resourceful, however knew it was only a short term solution.

Eventually though, Kurt had caught up with her on this particular late morning, much to Kitty's disappointment.  Despite all the serious situations, training and information gathering that the mansion was drowning with right now, there were mundane every day things that Kitty couldn't avoid, and Laundry was one of them. 

Towels were still used, clothes were still worn, beds were still slept in, and things needed to be washed.  Kitty hated that she was on duty this particular day, because if she hadn't, he'd have never found her in the laundry room, and she wouldn't have felt so trapped.

Kitty turned as she saw him enter the small room, he looked at her, expression quite unreadable, and she felt her cheeks flush.  "Hi," she said nervously, she yanked a freshly washed bedsheet out of the washing machine and tossed it into the dryer.

"I've been looking all over for you," Kurt said, "We need to talk."

"Kurt, I have nothing to say to you right now," Kitty groaned, she pulled a handful of pillowcases out of the washing machine.

"Then I'll talk, and you listen, is that fair?" Kurt asked, he stepped all the way in and shut the door behind himself.

"Fine," Kitty pushed the handful into the dryer, she kept repeating the cycle, keeping busy to try and avoid what he had to say.

"It seems like lately, you've been…avoiding me," Kurt said, sounding a little dejected about this, he moved a little closer, "and I know why…because I kissed you.  I know it probably wasn't the best thing to do given the situation…"

"You're right, it wasn't," Kitty finally said, "I could have done without you doing that, Kurt.  I have SO much to worry about right now.  Rogue…Remy…my parents having died…all this tracing and hacking, danger room sessions, I don't need to be worrying about old romances."

Kurt stopped her from what she was doing by putting a hand on her arm and turning her slightly towards her, "don't you even want to know why I did it?"

"Because you want to get back together again," Kitty stated, "But it's not gonna happen, because the last time we agreed to break up, we agreed it WAS the last time.  Our friendship can't go through another break up.  How long CAN we stay good friends if we keep going through this all our lives?" Kitty asked.

"I…uhm…"

Kitty sighed, "Kurt, seriously, I love you, but…I can't love you like that anymore…and we both have to move on.  Nothing you say can change my mind about that…" she added, looking away from him, because the hurt building in his eyes was too painful to see.

"Right…" Kurt sighed and headed for the door, he opened the door, left and closed it quietly behind himself without another word.

Kitty shook her head at herself, and silently swore at herself for making him feel that way.


	2. Chapter 2: New Software

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12

Chapter 2:  New Software

          Kitty Pryde pushed the buzzer outside of the door of an apartment building in the bad side of Bayville, she kept her head low, eyes hidden behind dark glasses and her hair was hidden beneath a curly blonde wig that the women members of the X-Men had used in the past for undercover operations.

          "Yeah," came the reply through the buzzer, and Kitty leaned forward to it, "it's me."

          "Password, babe, password," was the response that followed.

          Kitty rolled her eyes at the buzzer, "you know its me, why do I need a password?" she asked, she pressed her shoulder against the wall and sighed, she had a large pizza box tucked securely under one arm, the heat seeping through the cardboard right through to the sleeve of her denim jacket.

          "You could be anyone," came the response, a suspicious tone lacing the voice.

          Kitty couldn't blame the man inside the apartment for being cautious.  He'd been involved in many illegal activities although his favourite of these was hacking.  He was right, she could have been anyone, and it was only natural for him to ask for a password.  "Pizza delivery for Mr Stephanopaulos," she said disdainfully, "extra cheese, extra pepperoni, no anchovies and no peppers."

          A loud buzzing noise alerted Kitty, and she pushed the door open and let herself into the murky hallway, she made her way up the stairway, the pizza still under her arm.  Door 12 on the third floor opened as she approached the top of the stairs, and Ryan Bloom stared out from the small gap, his dark eyes suspicious.

          Kitty approached the door, she lowered her glasses so he could see it was her, the door opened all the way and she slipped in, closing it behind herself, "here," she handed him the pizza box.

          Ryan accepted the pizza box, "you suit blonde."  
          "I look like a bimbo," Kitty uttered, she glanced around the apartment, the place was in a shambles, the walls were painted a dark colour which Kitty couldn't distinguish – because of bad lighting – if it was brown or green.  The windows had been blacked out completely with paint and only tiny slithers made their way through from the very edges that had been missed.   There was barely space to move between piles of computer equipment, and garbage, "you seriously need to clean, I bet you have rats."

          "That's okay, I like animals," Ryan cracked, "so, Kitty, what did you come for, anyway?" Ryan asked. "When you called you weren't too specific," he sat down at his computer desk, three monitors were placed in three different locations on the desk, there were two keyboards between piles of CDs.

          "I need advice," Kitty said, she said, she sat on a space on a sideboard that was set against the wall, she crossed one leg over the other and watched as Ryan opened the pizza box and took out a large slice.

          "About?"

          "I'm trying to hack into a highly protected server," Kitty stated, "I can't tell you what it is exactly, all I can tell you is its government, and it's essential I get in."

          "You should be able to hack into government servers with the software and hardware I sold you," Ryan responded, mouth full of pizza.

          "You'd think," Kitty took the dark glasses and the wig off, "except this is a little more complex, its top secret, its something I don't even think the public know about, and if they do, then me and my friends must be the only ones who don't know," she explained.

          "So what's the problem?"

          "Because it's top secret there are no listings for systems administrator and without knowing who the systems admin is I can't get in," Kitty answered simply.  "I've tried various things, but nothing's working."

          "Can you break the password and cipher?" Ryan asked, he began searching through a pile of CDs on his desk, still munching on his pizza, the box sat precariously on his lap.

          "Yeah," Kitty answered, "I always get stuck when I get to the voice authorisation," she answered.

          "How much cash you got on you?" Ryan asked.

          "Ryan, I'm your brothers ex-girlfriend, I've bought MORE equipment and software from you than anyone, I'm your best customer, can't you just cut me some slack, just this once?"

          "Kitty, you should know that in life, nothing is free," Ryan smirked, his dark eyes glittered from behind his silver rimmed glasses.

          Kitty looked at him.  She was unsure of Ryan's exact age, he was probably a year younger than herself.  He was a loner, and barely ever left his apartment, which explained his pale complexion.  He might have been handsome if his hair didn't hang to his shoulders in greasy curls, and he didn't hide his dark intense eyes behind glasses that only made his face look longer than it was already.  "I don't have much cash on me, about thirty bucks and that's it."

          "Software I got will cost you an even thousand," he stated, "or no deal."

          "Ryan…please…this is important, someone's life is at stake here, did I tell you that?" Kitty asked softly, "my best friend's guy's life might count on this…"

          "Kitty, I'm sorry, but I don't give freebies.  A thousand is a reasonable price for this type of software."

          Kitty winced, "I…I can't ask for more money…"

          "Ask for money?" Ryan raised his eye, "What, you got someone gives you money or something?  Loan shark?"

          "No, its not that, just…a friend…" Kitty tried to shake off Ryan's inquisitive nature, "look, can't you just help me out just this once?  I'd owe you big time…"

          "Owe me what?" Ryan asked with a smirk.

          "Not THAT," Kitty folded her arms with a frown.

          "Not even just a quick one?"

          Kitty sighed and yanked her jacket off, "fine."

          Monet St Croix was standing behind the body of students who were also on the Muir Island trip as they were in the research centre in one of the low security genetics laboratories listening to Dr MacTaggert give a speech about the X-Gene.   It was nothing she hadn't heard before, and she certainly had no interest in hearing it again.  She could have found several more interesting ways of spending a perfectly good week and none of them involved learning things that she felt were – to someone with her advanced intellect – child's play.

          She knew exactly why the students had all been shipped off to Muir Island although she'd neglected to let anyone know this.  Monet was perceptive enough to know that beneath the faces of the instructors, there was fear.  Something big was kicking off.  Something to do with Remy LeBeau.  She wasn't positive why she knew, but she knew.  It was almost as if the information just dropped into her head.

Monet understood why the other students had been sent away – if something was going to happen, it might be soon, and the students who were less than capable of handling themselves shouldn't be where they could be easy targets.  Monet understood this one hundred percent…but the one thing she couldn't understand was why they'd sent her with them. 

          Monet was growing weary of the instructors babying her, they seemed unable to accept the fact she was not an ordinary sixteen year old and that they had no right to treat her as such.  She felt wasted and unappreciated, and was beginning to question her attending the institute.  She had no problems controlling her powers of strength and flight, and independently she'd studied several fighting styles of various different nations, combining them to become an impressive warrior.

          Monet felt she'd have been an asset to the X-Men even at – what the Professor had always deemed – 'a tender age'.   But it seemed there were no plans for this until she was eighteen, and even then, she wouldn't be on the full X-Men team, she'd be a probationer puppy-walked by two instructors.  It would be very humiliating, she decided.  And then to be one of the X-Men and always be under someone else's leadership?  The very thought left Monet cringing.

          "Monet, are you paying attention?" Dr MacTaggert asked.

          "Of course," Monet said lightly, she swept her long silken black hair over her shoulder and pretended to feign interest.  She felt that slight headache coming on again, perhaps a little more persistent than the one from yesterday.  Yesterday, the pain had only been in the very centre of her forehead, now the pain had increased there, and two new independent aches seemed to have established themselves at each temple.   She pressed two fingers to each temple and tried to concentrate on what was being said, but the words seemed a blur for a moment and it almost seemed as if everyone around her were speaking at once.

          "Monet…"

          The headache lifted suddenly, but not completely, it still left her with the dull throbbing, although now concentration became much easier, and Monet became aware of the hand of Sean Cassidy upon her arm.  "Yes?" she asked, she looked at him, a little startled.

          "Is something wrong?"  
          "Just a headache," Monet assured.

          "You should maybe lie down, you've gone very pale," Sean admitted, his expression sincere.

          "I think I will lie down…try and clear my head," Monet nodded, and took off without saying another word.

          Kitty Pryde couldn't believe instead of searching for Remy or trying to help find out what was being done with Hank McCoy's research she was playing video games with Ryan Bloom.   She couldn't believe that Ryan was making her stay here to play video games – that was his deal.  She realised it must be terribly lonely 'working' from home and never having a social life.  But she hated the fact she had to pay for his misfortune by spending time she felt she didn't have.

 Still, if her company was enough to make Ryan Bloom give her the software for free, she was all for it.  Guilt still heavily consumed her though.  What might Remy be enduing at that very moment as she sipped her soda, ate popcorn, and tapped madly at the gamepad of Ryan's old Gamecube.  Four hours had passed, and she was beginning to realise despite how ever good the outcome of this may be, she was still wasting valuable time.

"Y'know, Ryan, I gotta go soon…" Kitty tried to sound quite sad about it but she was desperate to get out of the dank apartment.  She really had to use the bathroom and she dared not enter his – there was always a weird smell in the hall where the bathroom door was located and she reckoned it might have been coming from there.

          "C'mon, Kitty, you never just hang out with me," Ryan said, "you used to date my brother for gods sake, you could at least treat me as more than just your local illegal software supplier."

          "I know, that, I know," Kitty whined, "Its just...I have so much work to do back home…" she explained sincerely, "Important stuff…"

          "Like?"

          "Sorry, Ryan, it's classified," Kitty put down the game controller, "But I've spent four hours here, and…I had fun," she lied, she hadn't been having fun at all, she'd spent every minute of those four hours wondering if anyone might have found something out at the mansion yet.

          Ryan sighed and got up, "fine," he picked the software up off his desk and tossed it over to her, "log in with password breaker and elliption curve decipher, then load this."

          "What is it exactly?" Kitty asked, she examined the name written on top of the CD-R.  In bold black letters it stated 'Pentothal  v1.0'.

          "You could kind of call it a virus if you like…I prefer calling it a kind of 'drug'.  It'll fool the server into telling you all kinds of information.  It got it's name from the drug by the same name – that stuff can be used as a kind of 'truth serum'," Ryan spoke so passionately about the software.

          "But won't I need the systems admin to get in before I can do that?"

          "As long as you can break two passwords this should do the trick, just run it, and type in the command 'cd usr', hit return, then type in 'authorise' then 'console' and it should break you into the console quite easily."

          "And this is guaranteed to work?" Kitty asked, she grabbed her jacket from the couch she'd flung it on and slipped it on.

          "Yes, but like the real drug, it doesn't work for long, so you have to be fast in running it and getting in," Ryan nodded, "Hey…can…I maybe ask you out some time?" He asked sheepishly, "I've always had a kind of crush on you…"

          Kitty felt suddenly squirmish and wanted to get out of that apartment as soon as possible, "aw…I'm sorry, I'm kinda in a relationship…"

          "You are?" Ryan asked, looking crestfallen.

          Kitty chewed her lip, "didn't I ever mention my boyfriend Kurt?  We've been going out since we were like…sixteen," she said, she deliberately failed to mention her relationship with Kurt had been on and off again since it had begun and that she was not currently with Kurt at all.  But hey, this was information he probably didn't have any hope of finding out.

          "I understand…" Ryan sighed.

          Kitty stepped towards the door, "thanks, Ryan, you're the best," she said, she held up the CD, and then left with one last smile of appreciation.


	3. Chapter 3: How Stupid

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12

Chapter 3:  How Stupid

          Kitty sat down at the computer in the war room, "guys guys guys," she muttered under her breath, "what is it with me and guys?!" she demanded to herself, although letting it be semi-directed at Ororo Munro who was updating some of the team records to include new skills or experience levels.

          "Is something wrong?" Ororo asked distractedly, she was sifting through a notepad she'd scribbled some comments on.

          "No…" Kitty sighed, "well…yes…well, no, well…yes AND no."

          "You have lost me," Ororo responded, she turned slightly to stare at Kitty.

          Kitty opened the CDrom tray and slipped the new software in, she closed it and went through the run command to start the installation, "Guys.  My problem is guys.  Guys.  Stupid guys."

          Ororo was still quite in the dark, "I don't understand," she raised a quizzical eyebrow and slightly smiled in confusion.

          "I would LOVE to be able to just focus completely a hundred percent on the task at hand here," Kitty was typing with some force out of anger, "God knows, I know Remy could be going through so much pain or torture right now – and that every minute I waste I'm compromising his safety," Kitty frowned, "and I want to be able to just concentrate on trying to find him as soon as possible, and I have one guy I know asking me out and telling me he has a crush on me and an ex-boyfriend trying to get back together with me…and meanwhile…I'm thinking about this other guy I kind of like who just doesn't seem to know I exist…" Kitty whined, "I shouldn't have the time to think about it…and yet, it's all I can think about today."

          The installation of the software began, and Kitty watched its' progress slowly mounting as it was installing.

          "I thought Kurt and yourself had agreed to never reconcile?" Ororo asked, she was typing in the records section of the database, her attention still on Kitty's dilemma.

          "I thought so too," Kitty said, "and then…I don't know, we were in the elevator and he hugged me and then, he was kissing me, and for one moment it felt good, and familiar, but then I reminded myself it was wrong…and…now he's upset because I told him it's over for good."

          Ororo nodded, understanding.

          "I used to think Rogue had a complicated love life," Kitty gave a half laugh, "who'd have ever thought I'd have those problems?"

          "Do you love Kurt?" Ororo asked, but then her expression changed, "Oh, I am sorry, of course…it is none of my business," she flushed, and she looked away slightly embarrassed.

          "It's okay," Kitty assured, she checked the progress of her installation and then turned back to Ororo, "I…I do love him, he's been one of my best friends since I became one of the X-Men, but…I don't know...I'm not like Jean, I can't love a team mate and keep a professional distance, and not get frantic when something goes wrong," Kitty explained, "It's bad enough worrying about him when we're just friends, but…if I was letting myself love him as I used to…I don't know, I think if something happened to him, I'd just die, 'Ro."

          Ororo smiled slightly, "I understand, Kitty.  But not loving Kurt isn't going to keep him any safer.  And you might be missing out on so much…"

          "I know," Kitty nodded, "I guess I've also been keeping my options open…"

          "For the man you really do care for," Ororo nodded, listening.

          "But…I don't think he's interested, and he's a dumb ox who can't even take a hint," Kitty said stubbornly, "maybe it's just because he's incredibly good looking, or maybe its just because I can't have him that I want him, but I just…can't get over this guy…oh, crap, okay, installation is done."

          "What are you installing?" Ororo asked.

          "Some kind of virus software I got from a friend – he said it will get me into the GMCF server," Kitty loaded up her trace tracker, and her IP mapping system, "okay…" she sucked in a breath, "cross your fingers and hope this works…" she began to set up a connection, clicking on several different servers to bounce her connection along.

          "What are you doing…what are all these…little points," Ororo gestured to the screen, watching with fascination.

          "Servers of various companies who do online business…I'm bouncing the connection off of them."

          "You have lost me," Ororo pulled her chair nearer to watch.

          Kitty turned to Ororo, "If I directly connect to the server I want to get to, I'd be traced almost immediately.  I connect using several different servers that re-route me so that I can't be detected as easily – it gives me more time to search for what I'm looking for – just as long as I clear the logs of my activity on the server before I disconnect from the server, I can't be traced – that and clearing the logs off a couple of the other servers I used."

          "Right," Ororo gave a vague nod although it seemed as if she didn't really know what Kitty was talking about at all.  Kitty didn't mind, it wasn't exactly easy to understand first time around. 

          "Right," Kitty pushed the connect button, "Lets see what happens."

          Kitty watched as the connection established itself, and proceeded to the treble login screen, she loaded up her password breaker and elliption curve decipher software, and easily got through them both.  "Okay," she glanced at the trace tracker, it had begun to pick up a trace leaving her with 1200 seconds to get into the server and find out what she needed to find out. 

          "Is it working?"

          "I'll find out now," Kitty loaded up the program Pentothal  v1.0.  A simple black box on the screen appeared, and requested an instruction to be typed in.  Kitty frowned, "shit…what did Ryan say I had to type in?" She tried to think, it was blank in her mind, "god how stupid am I?!  I should have written it down…" she closed her eyes tightly and tried to hear it in her head.  She then snapped her eyes open, "cd user," she typed in, she hit return and waited.

          'NO SUCH COMMAND', the black screen told her via some block letters in gray.

          Kitty tried again, typing several times with no luck.  The same message kept appearing, reminding her that she was definitely doing something wrong.

          "Shit shit shit," Kitty swallowed, she grabbed her cellular phone and dialled Ryan's number, she watched the trace tracker, it was down to 1000 seconds already.  The phone rang, and rang, she was losing hope of ever getting a reply, then a sleepy voice came down the line.

          "H'lo."

          "Ryan…it's Kitty," Kitty said quickly, she could feel sweat building up on her forehead from panic, "I forgot the command to use on that program…you said CD user, didn't you?  I typed it and it's not working…" she swallowed nervously.

          "Did you try again?" Ryan asked.

          "Yes," Kitty groaned, "What can I do?"

          "Okay, try typing cd admin," Ryan suggested.

          Kitty tried, a new message came up on the black screen, "it's telling me 'Authorisation required'."

          "Kitty, I didn't program the software so I don't know what else to tell you, it's like I said, you type 'cd usr', then 'authorise', and then 'console' and that gets you in…" Ryan stated clearly, "are you using lower case?"

          "Yes," Kitty groaned, she glanced to the trace tracker, Ryan, I have 800 seconds left, I need to get in RIGHT now."

          "Relax, that's still like 13 minutes," Ryan uttered, "I'm trying to think of what you might be doing wrong…" on the other end, it went silent as he paused for thought, "Wait…you are typing the command right, aren't you?"

          "What'd you mean?" Kitty asked.

          "cd usr…you aren't spelling it with an 'E' are you?" Ryan asked.

          Kitty rolled her eyes, "of course I am, that's how you SPELL user."

          "It's not USER," Ryan gasped, "don't you know ANYTHING?  It's U.S.R."

          "Fuck," Kitty muttered, "you could have TOLD me that," she growled, she typed in the command on the black screen.  "Oh my god!!  It worked!" Kitty squealed.

          "Type 'Authorise' and then 'Console'," Ryan said, "I gotta go now, I'm watchin' 'X-Files'," he added, and with that, hung up.

          Kitty tossed her phone aside, "right," she said, and typed in 'Authorise'.

          'AUTHORISATION PERMITTED: PLEASE TYPE IN COMMAND' the message appeared.  Kitty grinned broadly and typed 'console'.  The black screen disappeared, and replaced itself with a new screen, a silver screen with several different labelled options.  "Oh my god!  We're in!" Kitty happily stated in a shrill tone, "okay…what's here," she read the screen quickly, the list of options available were; 'Admin', 'Security', 'ISO-1', 'ISO-2', 'Records' and 'Search'.

          Ororo was watching, sharply observing, keen to find out what Kitty might uncover, she shrewdly noted on the top of the screen the full name of the mutant containment facility.  She whispered, "Genoshan Mutant Containment Facility."

          "Genoshan?" Kitty asked, "what is that?"

          "The facility must be based on Genosha…" Ororo stated.

          "I've never heard of Genosha," Kitty confessed.

          "It's not a very well known place, Kitty.  It's off the coast of Africa.  I visited there as a child with my parents not long before they died.  The island was almost completely deserted…"

          Kitty chose the search option, "we have 10 minutes to find out as much as we can," she typed in Remy's name.  'LeBeau, Remy,'.  The search software was running at a low speed, Kitty noticed the names of several people coming up through the listings, 'Hey…did you see that?!" Kitty gaped, "I saw Pietro's name appear there!"

          "As did I," Ororo leaned in closer to view.

          A very loud fast beeping alerted Kitty, and she glanced towards the trace tracker, "oh shit…" she whispered.

          "What…?" Ororo asked.

          Before Kitty had a chance to answer or do anything else, the screen totally went black, and only two words appeared there, in a large gray font.  The words made Kitty's heart almost stop and her breath catch in her throat. 

          'CONNECTION TERMINATED BY SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR'.

          Kitty could barely move, or blink, she sat, gaping, and one exasperated word made its' way out of her mouth.  "FUCK."


	4. Chapter 4: Headpain

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12

Chapter 4:  Headpain

          Alison Blaire was painting her nails whilst humming absently to herself, it was the first time she'd had a moment to herself all day – at least a moment to herself that didn't include lessons in advanced genetics about mutations and the x-gene.  She wasn't interested in learning these things, she didn't see how understanding why mutation occurred might help her control her powers.  Couldn't control only come from experience? 

          She observed her nails, and blew lightly on them to dry, wondering why they had all had to have been shipped to Scotland so suddenly – usually if a field trip such as this was planned, they were always well informed at least a month or two in advance.   Alison had only found out the day before leaving.  This had to mean something.  Alison was no genius but even she had her suspicions about the sudden decision for all the students to take the trip.

          The whole research centre had fallen silent after midnight, but Alison still felt jetlagged, and couldn't sleep no matter how hard she tried.  But she was glad for the silence.  The less noise, the better, as Alison's powers were triggered by most types of sound.  Those sounds would turn into kinds of light that could sometimes could be lethal or blinding.  Whilst there was no noise, Alison didn't have to keep focusing on holding back those powers.  She smiled a little, beginning to relax in the silence, and admired her newly painted bright blue fingernails.

          Her mind drifted back to the strange atmosphere that had over taken the Mansion just before they'd left.  Rogue had been walking around in a daze, she'd looked as if she hadn't slept for weeks, dark circles under her eyes, her tanned skin pale.  Kitty had barely had time to spare even for dinner.  The Professor hadn't been appearing at dinner either, he'd been locking himself in his office and hadn't explained to any of the students why. 

          And then there was the training sessions in the Danger room.  They'd gotten even more intense.  Up two levels higher than they were used to dealing with and for longer hours.  No one had complained of course, because it was more challenging and gave them more sense of importance than before.  No one seemed to be questioning the reason behind it all.  Why all of a sudden instead of the gradual increase as they always had done. 

          A sudden blast of noise caused a sudden flash of multicoloured light to escape from her hands – her powers were responding to the sound and turning it into pure power, sparkles and beams of light shot from her hands.  She fell back from the bed as the nearby bedside cabinet exploded from the impact, "What's going on?!" she demanded confusedly.  She glanced at the cabinet which now lay broken upon the floor, singed, in several pieces, some pieces looking as if they'd been burned in half with lasers and the other pieces broken and charred.

She was almost about to think of how she was going to explain this to Moira MacTaggart and Sean Cassidy and then suddenly she became aware of the loud and shrill screaming coming from down the hall.  Now she realised what had set her power off – and what was still causing her powers to surge without her consent.

          Alison threw the door open and staggered of the room, trying to focus on controlling her powers wasn't even helping, and light shone from her every which way as if she were a living lighthouse in the dark, "STOP SCREAMING!!" she yelled, she found the source of the sound, an open door, and she stumbled in.

          In the incredible light her powers were creating from the sound of those screams, Alison could see Monet St Croix squirming upon the floor screaming bloodcurdlingly, clutching the sides of her head.  Her hair was splayed out on the carpet like a river of ink.  Beneath the long skirt of her satin nightgown, Monet's legs thrashed.  Her eyes were shut tightly and her teeth clenched.  It was obvious she was in agony.

          "STOP IT!" Alison cried at her, "You're making my powers wig out!"

          Monet was writhing across the floor, still holding onto her head, her screams were loud and shrill.  Pain was cutting through her brain like a hot knife whilst her skull felt as if it were shrinking, and trying to implode all together.  Monet had never felt such agony in all the sixteen years she'd been alive. 

          "What's going on?!" Rusty Collins came in, looking dazed, his eyes sleepy, hair jutting up at odd angles.  He stared down at Monet, completely bewildered.

          "She's freaking out…get someone!" Alison put her hands to her ears hoping it would block out the sound to her powers, but this caused no effect whatsoever.

          Monet still writhed, she rolled over, grasping her head, she opened her eyes, squinting at an incredible white light that had overtaken the bedroom to the point that Monet momentarily thought she might be dead.

          {Oh my god! She has to stop screaming, I can't control my powers…I don't want to end up blowing this room up!}

          Alison Blaire's voice was very loud, and clear, and almost seemed to bounce from the walls as if they were in a much bigger room.   Monet only wished she could stop screaming, just as Alison had requested, but she convulsed as the pain doubled.  The pain confirmed the fact she was definitely not dead. 

          Monet focused through the light, Alison's face was barely visible apart from her sharp blue eyes, and faint contours of her face, looking into the light seemed to make Monet's head hurt even more, Monet frowned, she tried to summon the will to speak, only the words would not find their way out of her mouth.

          Alison felt a blinding pain hit her right between the eyes, and she let out a howl of agony, she pressed her hands to her forehead, dropping to her knees, the light around her dimming considerably.  {Oh my god!  What's going on?!}

          Monet saw with her eyes that Alison had not spoken these words.  The pain began to quickly dull and Alison let go of her head, eyes teary from pain.  "Alison…?" Monet asked confusedly.

          Alison moved over, "What was that…?"        

          "I don't know…" Monet whispered, she pulled herself up, she tried to compose herself, although tears of pain were streaming down her face, "I…I don't know," she rubbed at her temples, the ache still persistent although certainly more tolerable than it had been.

          Sean Cassidy came rushing in, "what's going on…Rusty told me something was happening…" his eyes were weary, but wide.

          "I had a bad headache…" Monet replied coolly, remaining calm, she wiped the tears from her face, "it may have just been stress."

Alison rolled her eyes, {yeah right,}

Monet looked at Alison strangely,  "It's gone now," she assured, looking back to Sean and trying to seem as unaffected as possible.

          "Maybe you should have Moira give you a look over…" Sean suggested.

          "I'm fine, I assure you," Monet said softly, "please…don't make more of this than there is.  It's a headache."

          Sean nodded, "alright…" he sighed, "you…I can't remember your name…back to your room, please," he looked at Alison.

          "Alison," Alison replied rather hotly, then forced a smile, "Just a moment, I just want to talk to Monet for just a sec…then I'll go, I swear," she pleaded.

          "Fine," Sean sighed, and left closing the door behind himself.

          "Stress?" Alison finally said once Sean was out of earshot, "since when do you suffer from 'stress'?" she folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.

          "I don't," Monet said, "but whatever it is that I'm suffering from, is no concern of yours."

          "I blew up the cabinet in my room 'cause of that, and you're telling me it's no concern of mines?!" Alison demanded, "When they see that tomorrow, they'll flip…I hear Moira is a real tyrant."

          Monet looked away, trying to think clearly, her mind still felt strangely weighed.

          {Why does she ALWAYS do that, it's like she doesn't even care!} Alison's voice echoed across the room, which seemed strange because the room, being as small as it did, didn't have acoustics such as that – and if it had, Monet realised her screams would have been even more lethal to Alison's powers than they had been.

          Monet spun around and stared at Alison, who was standing quite silent, having not have said a word in the past minute.  "Hmmm?" she asked, referring to the last thing Alison seemed to have said.

          "I said I blew up the cabinet in my room 'cause of that, and—"

          "Right…" Monet cut Alison off all too quickly, and nodded, beginning to understand now what had happened, "Alison…I'm tired…and so are you, you must be drained after all that power you used…you should sleep it off, or you'll be exhausted tomorrow."

          Alison looked at Monet, {oh my god, is she actually pretending to care?  What's the deal with this girl?  She's like the ice maiden.}

          Monet raised an eyebrow, looking at Alison curiously.  Her lips did not move, the girl's blue eyes were squinting in suspicion at Monet, as those words came clear as day to Monet.  Monet's eyes widened just a little in reaction as it became clear what was happening to her.

"What's going on…?" Alison asked.

"A headache…and nothing more," Monet replied heading towards the door.

"Yeah, and I had it too, momentarily!  How do you explain that?" Alison demanded, she gave a dramatic gesture, and frowned.

Monet gave a quirky smile, "sympathy pain?" she asked.

"Oh come ON, that's total bull…something weird happened!"

"Nothing 'weird' happened," Monet replied, "and if you please…I'm quite tired now, Alison.  Good night…" she said quietly, and opened the door for Alison and gestured gently to the open threshold.

          Alison shook her head in disbelief and stepped out, Monet closed the door quickly behind her.

          Monet leaned against the door, she swept her long hair back from her face and stood deep in thought for several moments.  She had a new power


	5. Chapter 5: Onset

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12

Chapter 5:  Onset

Kurt Wagner raised his head from the counter of the security panel in the small security room on the first floor of the mansion.  He swore mentally at himself sleepily as he rubbed his eyes, realising he'd fallen asleep whilst on security duty.

          "You have one job to do and you botch it up…" Kurt uttered at himself angrily as he began to quickly view the monitors, nothing seemed to be out of place, the whole mansion was silent, and he seemed to be the only one awake.  He switched internal cameras to check the most popular rooms, the kitchen, the library and the recreation room.  Rogue was in the recreation room, watching a movie.  He zoomed the camera into her, and examined her face.  She looked tired, and pale.

Kurt pondered momentarily if he should go talk to Rogue.  She did look as if she needed a friend – and a brother – right now, and he could use the company.  He could take a fifteen minute break, get himself some coffee, and take her a cup, but he decided against it.  From what he'd heard about Kitty's incident with the hacking, it was expected that within the next few days, something might happen, and no one was sure what. 

          Kurt sighed watching the cameras closely, he wished Kitty was with him at that moment.  She was meant to have been on security duty with him tonight, but had somehow managed to talk her way out of it with the Professor with claims of exhaustion.  Kurt was almost certain that she was just avoiding him.

          It was understandable why she might, after all, he had been a little too candid given the current situation.  There were several more important things to think about, and Kitty didn't need personal problems interfering, but whenever Kurt was near her, he couldn't help it.

          He caught the reflection of something in the monitor in front of him only a moment before something hit him in the side of the neck, it felt slightly cool against the blur fur covering his flesh, but the fur did not dull the sensations of sharp pricks making their way around his neck, he placed his hand to his neck to feel what it was, gasping in shock, something round was against his neck, just as he touched it, an electric shock caused him to seize and he fell from the chair.  He didn't have time to hit the alarms before he fell unconscious.

          Kitty hadn't been able to sleep all night, and as the early hours of morning were arriving her mind was still full of panic.  What would happen now?  Her connection bouncing had failed her, and the trace tracker had picked up too suddenly to be able to respond as properly as she should.  She should have disconnected as soon as she could, but instead she felt she hadn't had a chance.

          Despite cleaning the logs of her activity, she couldn't help but think that somehow, she was still in very deep trouble for hacking into the GMCF server.  And it was only a matter of time before they came looking.

          With a heavy sigh, Kitty turned over in bed, she stared at the window, it was still dark outside, and through the large window, Kitty could see grey clouds forming over the crescent moon, promising rain.

          No birds were singing, barely a sound occurred except the soft rustle of the drapes from the open window, Kitty tried to let that sound soothe her into sleep, but somehow, that silence only made her uneasy.  Sighing, she turned over, facing the wall rather than the window, she closed her eyes.

          Her thoughts drifted to Kurt.  It was strange that despite she wanted to forget about the whole thing that it was the only thing that seemed to push itself into her mind, and she kept replaying it in her head even when she knew it would do her no good to dwell on personal problems right now. 

          _I really hurt him_, Kitty thought wearily.  That look on Kurt's face was etched in her head now, she'd never seen him look so dejected – especially from something she'd said.  She glanced at the digital alarm clock on the bedside cabinet, the red numbers indicating it was three am exactly.   She had considered – very briefly – going to talk to him and apologising for being so abrupt about the situation.  Kurt often stayed up late, and tonight he was on security duty, he'd be up until five am, alone in the security room.

          Kitty finally decided against that, and she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.  Fatigue drenched her, and she felt herself becoming lighter, her body relaxing, mind becoming clear as the exhaustion pulled her in.  She was not prepared when something cold and hard slapped against her neck, and seconds later a sharp pricking sensation followed by a powerful electric shock.  Soon the blackness overwhelmed her.  She never knew what hit her.

          Logan had sensed something was wrong barely seconds before the attack occurred.  With lightning quick reflexes he shot out of bed, spinning around to see the silhouettes gathered in the darkness, their red eyes burning through the blackness of his bedroom.  Those eyes told him that they could see almost perfectly in the dark, and despite his own heightened senses, he couldn't see as well in the dark as he would have hoped.

          He reached out and flicked the light switch as quickly as he could, but his attackers seemed to sense his urgency to know who they were, and one of them lashed out far too fast with a metal staff, smashing the lamp to the floor.  Logan ducked, his extraordinary hearing catching the whipping of a staff coming in his direction, he kicked out at one of the silhouettes and watched the attacker come down.

          "No more mister nice guy," Logan uttered, he unsheathed his claws and lashed out viciously, he felt the adamantium collide with flesh, and he growled, "who ARE you?!" he demanded.

Logan elbowed at one attacker, swung a fist at another, kicked out, claws slicing through skin.  He felt the warm slash of blood upon his bare torso.  For one moment, he paused and he let his mutant senses overwhelm his human senses, and took a sniff at the air.  A very familiar scent caught him by surprise. 

"Gambit?!!" Logan cried out, spinning around to look, as five pairs of red eyes stared at him wickedly from the blackness.

Horror struck him, the thought that he might have accidentally struck Remy LeBeau with his claws.   There was no mistaking Remy LeBeau's scent, it was overpowering now.  The surprise of the scent was what took Logan down in the end, as caught in surprise had momentarily stupefied him.  From behind a hand grabbed him by the throat, and then something cold and tinny was pressed firmly to his neck, he felt tiny points of metal cut into his skin, and intense electricity surging through his veins.  He landed with a hard thud to the floor, unconscious before he felt the impact.

Hank McCoy had been in his lab when he'd been assaulted by the assailants, they'd attacked the lights first, and he hadn't had enough time to make out who they were, but in the darkness, his keen eyesight caught their outlines quite clearly enough to let him fight.  He leapt out of the way, gazing into those red eyes, eyes that he recognised.  Even without his vision, his vast intellect and his knowledge of what had occurred within the mansion in the past weeks allowed him to quickly work out who was attacking.

He headed for the open door, something sharp and cold hit him in the shoulder and the arm, as he was halfway out of the threshold, the light caught the silver of the blades that had been thrown at him, he gasped took a hold of them and pulled them out quickly, blood seeping profusely from the wounds.  He held onto the wounds with one hand, he still felt the agony of the remaining blades within his shoulder, the ones he could not reach and had no time to worry about right now.  The nearest alarm was only a little more down the hall.

Running, trying to stop the bleeding, he was almost there, when the instrument was planted upon his neck, and soon he was being electrically shocked into unconsciousness.  His assailants let out a chuckle. 

"Two more to go," one of them said.  "Leave Xavier 'til last, he won't sense us until the end."

Another stated in a low voice, "Rogue is in the recreation room, I saw her on the security monitor as I took out Nightcrawler."

"Leave her to me.  She's gonna be easy."

          Rogue hadn't heard any of the commotion going on in the mansion, as one by one her team-mates were taken down by the unseen assailants.  She'd been in the recreation room far from the turmoil the whole time.  She hadn't been able to sleep, and so she'd set herself down on the comfortable leather couch to watch an old black and white movie.   She envied the romance of the movies, where everything seemed so magical and wondrous and love always conquered all.

          Rogue shook her head at the thought.  Real love was nothing like that at all, it was full of complications and heartache and the very thing that was supposed to hold you together was the thing that drove you further apart.  Love.

          Rogue heard a soft creaking at the back of the room – the doors hinges needed oiling.  Someone was entering the room slowly, and Rogue jumped, slightly jarred.

          "Chere…"

          Rogue spun around and gaped as Remy LeBeau stepped into the recreation room, he looked smug, and well rested.  She jumped up from her chair, "what are you…I mean…how…"

          "Doesn't matter, cherie," Remy assured, he stepped over, "I got away…" he looked at her with dark intense eyes, as he moved slowly, his long brown hair caught the breeze of an open window and stirred softly.  Rogue examined what he was wearing, a full black leather outfit, a tiny silver logo gleamed on the left side of the chest of the jacket, but it caught the light and she couldn't make out what it was.

          "But…how…I mean…what about the clone…"

          "It must have been so confusing for you," Remy approached.

          Rogue stood up slowly to throw her arms around him, "god, I didn't know if I'd ever see you again," she pressed her face to his shoulder, tears brimming her eyes.

          "You might just," Remy replied, in a very strange cold tone that made Rogue shiver.

          "Hmm?" Rogue asked, then she gasped as an icy implement hit her neck, and something sharp dug its way beneath her skin.  "REMY?!" she asked, panicked breath pouring from her mouth.

          "Close enough."

          Electrical shock hit Rogue, pulling her down to the floor like a ton of bricks, and once it was over, she was unconscious, like the others.

Charles Xavier had awoken with a start, his telepathic senses had picked up on something in the room with him, and it had brought him from his slumber into a harsh awakening, his senses coming alive at once.  He glanced around in the darkness, his breath catching in his throat, he saw three silhouettes, red eyes glimmering in the darkness, quickly he scanned the room telepathically, recognising the mental signatures of the attacker, they were all the same and it made it impossible to determine if there were three in the mansion or more, and now he realised just what threat lay ahead.  He pressed his hands to his head quickly, and tried to throw out a telepathic alert to the mansion that they were under ambush, but realised it was too late, no one was conscious except from himself, and he was about to befall the same fate they had no doubt.

In a flash with precise speed, he was ambushed from the side by one of them, cold steel hit his neck and for a moment, he was afraid he'd almost been cut with a blade.  In panic, he sent out a fierce telepathic attack, , and the three assailants went down with a thud gasping in pain.

Professor Xavier experienced a horrific electric shock which took him down before he could use his powers any further on the three attackers.  He was unable to even save himself.


	6. Chapter 6: Telepathic Onslaught

Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12

Chapter 6:  Telepathic Onslaught

          Monet St Croix came down for breakfast at 8am that next morning, the kitchen of the research centre was almost empty except from Alison Blaire who apparently hadn't slept all night judging by the dark circles around her eyes.  Monet gave her one rather questioning expression, then went towards the box of cereal.  "Didn't you sleep?"

          Alison snorted in contempt but didn't answer, she dig her spoon in to her cereal and swirled the Rice Krispies.  {As if she cares…} she thought dully, {she's so self absorbed and full of herself I doubt she even knows I'm here.}

          Monet turned and stared, it seemed strange, to be hearing Alison's voice in her head like that, and it made Monet feel slightly ill at ease, knowing she was in someone else's head – hearing things that were never meant to be heard by anyone.

Monet hadn't been prepared for the sudden manifestation of telepathic ability that had come on almost overnight. 

          I should have realised this was coming, Monet thought dully as she took a bowl from the dishrack and poured herself some branflakes.  Monet had always thought she was prepared for anything that life threw at her.  She'd never stopped to think for one minute that this natural perceptiveness she'd seemed to have had since she was a child may have been the early stages of her mutation. 

          Monet poured the milk as she remained deep in thought, it only occurred to her now that there was no other way she could have known about things in peoples lives that she'd never been told.  She hadn't known about Rogue and Remy LeBeau's relationship, and yet she'd somehow picked up on it without asking herself why.  She'd always assumed it may have been something she'd picked up on absently, hearing a rumour and putting it to the back of her mind…

          "Uhm…Monet…?" Alison asked, sounding quite confused, "Monet?"

          Monet blinked herself out of her reverie and realised she had been spilling milk all over the counter, "Oh…I…" she stammered, her cheeks flushed and put the jug of milk down but at the wrong angle, in turn, causing it to topple and land upon the floor, an explosion of milk and ceramic hit the tiles.  She winced.

          "What is WITH you?" Alison got to her feet, grabbing a hand of kitchen towels from the roll on the counter and beginning to mop up the milk on the counter which had begun to spill over the edge.  "God, you're like in your own world lately!  What's wrong?"

          "Nothing…I'm tired, that's all…" Monet knelt down and picked up the broken pieces of ceramic.

          "Yeah, right," Alison mumbled, she squinted in annoyance, her blue eyes glittering, "You know you aren't meant to keep things from your team mates."

          "You are not my team mates," Monet replied coldly, "You are merely fellow students, barely even acquaintances."

          "Same thing," Alison rolled her eyes, she shook her head at the girl.

          Monet dropped the pieces to the floor, pain sliced into her head like the cold steel of a knife, and mental images began to flash in front of her eyes quickly, "Ughnnn!" she cried out grasping her head, she curled up on the floor, her hair spilling into the pools of milk on the tiles.

          "Monet!  What is it?!" Alison asked, falling to her knees, she took a hold of Monet's arm and tried to turn her over to examine her.

          Monet failed over, pushing Alison away, and holding onto her head once more.  She saw a room swathed in shadows, through a large window faint moonlight shone through revealing three silhouettes, their eyes were like glittering rubies.  Monet felt a sense of dread stir within her, no one was there to help her, she was glued to the spot on a bed, her legs felt leaden, her powers useless.

          The three figures were closing in, she could see something glittering in one of their hands, it flashed silver in the moonlight briefly and disappeared into the blackness.  She was trying to call out to the X-Men with her telepathic abilities, not her voice.  All over she could sense their minds, unconscious.  One of the silhouettes headed towards her, and she could barely do anything to stop it with the dead weight of her body.

          The pain in Monet's head increased dramatically, something cold was against her neck now, cold steel, and needle like points were forcing their way beneath her flesh.  She frowned, focusing all her power on those three silhouettes and watched them fall to their knees crying out in agony as she telepathically attacked.  Momentarily she glanced to the mirror directly opposite and saw her reflection…only…it wasn't her reflection, it was Professor Xavier's reflection, and she was in his bed, feeling his powers.

          Electric shock took her by surprise, and she let out a horrific shriek as she felt what the professor was feeling at that moment back in Bayville.  She convulsed madly across the floor.

          "MONET!" she heard Alison's voice echo, and her eyes snapped open briefly to see a distorted image of Alison trying to bring her out of the seizure.  Her mind was still reeling from what she'd just seen, both telepathically and physically, the pain still remained and it felt as if a hot knife were now trying to filet her brain.  She struggled free easily of Alison's grasp, her powers growing wildly out of control from the strain of her telepathic powers manifesting, growing stronger with every moment. 

          {Oh my GOD!!} Alison's thoughts were screaming, {what is happening to her?!}

          Monet began to pick up the thoughts of everyone in the building.  They were coming in like crashing waves of the ocean, unavoidable and powerful.

{So the X-Gene can be triggered before puberty?  Wow!  The gene becomes more advanced with every generation!} The genetic researchers down in the labs were working on mutant manifestations within children under the ages of seven.  Monet tried to force their thoughts out of her head, but the thoughts only seemed to increase.

Moira MacTaggart's thoughts came next.  {I'm sure she's stealing.  Twice this week we've lost five six packs of toilet paper and three bottles of bleach…I think we need to fire her.  I'll do the cleaning myself if I have to.}

Then Sean Cassidy's followed, {why am I avoiding asking her!  Eight years is an insane time to be in a relationship without making a real commitment, I should just ask her to marry me.  If she says no, nothing will change…right?}

          Those thoughts began to overlap, soon her fellow students voices were in her head as their thoughts too began to cloud her mind.

          {God, I'm so skinny it's gross…all the X-Men have these amazing bods like they've just come off of a Mr Universe contest and I look like I've just come out of a concentration camp,} Rusty Collins thoughts came.  Monet tried desperately to block them.

          Soon, everyone's thoughts were overlapping on each others until it was impossible to know who was saying what.

          Monet lashed out, knocking a table over, she tossed and turned across the floor, she thudded her feet to the ground in pain, the tiles all coming loose and cracking under her strength.

          {There's been barely any fish this haul, all these big boats are comin' in from the mainland and takin' all the fish…how are we meant to survive on this island with the money we make with what we catch if they steal our catches.}

{I think we need to move back to Edinburgh…the night life here is about as exciting as clipping your toenails.  But if I tell HIM that he'll just gripe about how city life doesn't suit him.}

{It's rainin'…again…why does it always rain on this godforsaken island…?}

The thoughts of the entire population of Muir Island began to seep into her head, her mind filled with so many words, some in English and some in Gaelic, they were all screaming in her head until she couldn't even hear herself think.  They seemed to bounce of the walls inside her skull and reverberate inside her brain, the sound causing the pain to increase.  Her heart began to thud madly, she could hear it in her ears, it was like a drum – a wicked beat picking up speed until she felt her heart might explode from the pressure.

"MAKE IT STOP!" Monet screeched shrilly as tears of agony flowed down her face, she aimed upwards, still holding her head, she had to get out of the centre…get off the island, get away from peoples thoughts, the further she was away from them, the sooner the pain would go away.  She took off, taking to the air like a helicopter, spinning around, her milksoaked hair whipping around.  She went through the ceiling, sending rooftiles, wood and plaster exploding to the air. 

Somewhere beneath her she heard Alison gasping and screaming her name, but she had no time nor want to reply.  She closed her eyes, a mist of cold rain hit her face, and she began to soar higher, until the air was colder.  The thoughts began to drop away from her mind like sand from an hourglass, one by one they disappeared altogether, falling into the island below.  Monet opened her eyes and looked down, the research centre barely looked like a miniature model on the barren fields.  Further on she could see the small village off the coast, the homes seemed as small as the houses on a Monopoly board.  

Monet touched the clouds, the cool damp air, and rain still bathing her from all directions, it soothed her, and she began to breathe evenly again.  She soared along the sky for a few moments, her own thoughts began to clear, all the other thoughts that did not belong to her dropped completely.  Her mind was her own again.

My powers are growing faster than my mind is capable of handling, she realised wearily, she closed her eyes and soared across the water, the wind hitting her face was reassuring and calming, her short skirt flapped around her thighs, and her loose blouse fluttered slightly in the airstream just beneath her.  For one moment, everything seemed fine again…

And then her eyes then snapped open and she stopped in midair, suddenly remembering the first thing that had presented itself to her in the telepathic onslaught.

"The Professor…" she whispered to herself, she sucked in a breath, "The X-Men…they're in trouble…" she glanced back towards Muir Island.   Should I go back and get the others?  She thought, hovering there, the Island barely a small green blob in the distance.  She tried to rationally assess the situation.   What could Sean or Moira do?  Not much.  Moira was a mere human and while Sean was a mutant, Monet felt his powers would do him no good, especially for a journey such as this.  And the students?  They barely could handle a level three danger room session let alone go up against real opponents and even if they could, there was no time to charter a jet to fly to Bayville, and there was certainly no aircraft on the Island that they could borrow. 

Monet fretted, wondering if she'd ever be able to handle a journey such as this just by her powers of flight alone.  She'd never gotten as far as to test her flight speed nor her stamina.   She began to calculate in her mind.  The Blackbird jet had gotten from Bayville to Muir Island in just under eight hours, but Monet was sure she wasn't as fast as the Blackbird, this might be a ten hour journey.

What if I get exhausted in the middle of the ocean?  Monet wondered, but then forced herself to forget the negativity for now.  No, I can't think like that.  The X-Men are in trouble…and I might be the only one that can help…

She looked back to Muir Island one last time, she made her decision then.  She turned and began her long journey.


End file.
